{"id":474490,"date":"2026-05-30T09:31:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/474490\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T09:31:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T09:31:32","slug":"scientists-discover-mysterious-creature-living-in-the-great-salt-lake-and-it-exists-nowhere-else-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/474490\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Discover Mysterious Creature Living in the Great Salt Lake \u2013 and It Exists Nowhere Else on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tree<\/a>A stark landscape of the Great Salt Lake at low water levels. The lake\u2019s extreme environment is home to a surprisingly small but resilient community of organisms. Shutterstock<\/p>\n

A tiny worm discovered in the Great Salt Lake could help scientists better understand the origins and resilience of life in extreme environments. Its story remains largely a mystery.
The Great Salt Lake is famous for brine shrimp, brine flies, and water so salty that few animals can survive in it. Now scientists have added a far stranger resident to that short list: a tiny worm that appears to live nowhere else on Earth.<\/p>\n

Researchers at the University of Utah<\/a> have formally described a new free-living nematode found in the lake\u2019s microbialites, the reeflike mineral mounds that cover parts of the lakebed. The species, named Diplolaimelloides woaabi, measures less than 1.5 millimeters long (0.06 inches), but it could offer important clues about life in one of North America\u2019s most extreme aquatic environments.<\/p>\n

The name honors the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, whose ancestral lands include the lake. Michael Werner, an assistant professor of biology who led the research team, consulted tribal elders, who recommended Wo\u2019aabi, an Indigenous word meaning \u201cworm.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tiny Animal Hidden in a Harsh Lake<\/p>\n

Nematodes are among the most abundant animals on Earth. They live in soil, polar ice, deep ocean vents, and many other environments, and more than 250,000 species are known. Yet until 2022, none had been confirmed in the Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

That changed when Julie Jung, then a postdoctoral researcher in Werner\u2019s lab, found nematodes during sampling trips by kayak and bicycle. The worms were living in microbialites, hardened structures built by microbial communities that help support the lake\u2019s food web.<\/p>\n

\"Julie<\/a>Julie Jung examines nematodes recovered from Great Salt Lake. Credit: Brian Maffly, University of Utah<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought that this was probably a new species of nematode from the beginning, but it took three years of additional work to taxonomically confirm that suspicion,\u201d said Jung, now an assistant professor at Weber State University.<\/p>\n

The team confirmed the species using 18S DNA sequencing and detailed anatomical studies with scanning electron microscopy and differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. Those methods revealed tiny but important features, including eyespots, fused lips, a funnel-shaped mouth cavity, short sensory bristles, and specialized male reproductive structures.<\/p>\n

Only the Third Known Animal Group in the Lake\u2019s Salty Water<\/p>\n

The discovery makes nematodes only the third known metazoan animal group living in the Great Salt Lake\u2019s hypersaline waters. The others are brine shrimp and brine flies, which help feed huge numbers of migratory birds.<\/p>\n

Diplolaimelloides woaabi belongs to the family Monhysteridae and order Monhysterida, groups known for members that can tolerate salty or otherwise extreme habitats. Its genus is usually associated with coastal marine or brackish environments, making its presence in Utah especially puzzling. The Great Salt Lake sits about 4,200 feet above sea level and roughly 800 miles from the nearest ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Diplolaimelloides<\/a>Microscopic images of Diplolaimelloides woaabi, the newly identified nematode species from Great Salt Lake. Credit: Journal of Nematology; Werner lab, University of Utah<\/p>\n

Researchers have also found genetic evidence that a second nematode species may live in the lake, though more study is needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to tell distinguishing characteristics, but genetically we can see that there are at least two populations out there,\u201d Werner said.<\/p>\n

How Did It Get There?<\/p>\n

The worm\u2019s origin is one of the biggest mysteries. One possibility reaches back to the Cretaceous Period, when a vast seaway divided North America and parts of present-day Utah bordered marine water. Co-author Byron Adams, a Brigham Young University biology professor and nematode expert, thinks the worms may be ancient survivors from that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we were on the beach here. This area was part of that seaway, and streams and rivers that drained into that beach would be great habitat for these kinds of organisms,\u201d said Adams, who also has a nematode species named after him. \u201cWith the Colorado Plateau lifting up, you formed a great basin, and these animals were trapped here. That\u2019s something that we have to test out and do more science on, but that\u2019s my go-to. The null hypothesis is that they\u2019re here because they\u2019ve always kind of been here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Collecting<\/a>Researchers collected nematode specimens on Utah\u2019s Great Salt Lake. Credit: Julie Jung<\/p>\n

That idea would mean the worms endured major changes in the region, including the freshwater Lake Bonneville, which covered northern Utah between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the nematode has been endemic since 100 million years ago, it has survived through these dramatic shifts in salinity at least once, probably a few times,\u201d Werner said.<\/p>\n

Another possibility is that the worms arrived more recently on migratory birds, perhaps carried in feathers or mud from other saline lakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo who knows. Maybe the birds are transporting small invertebrates, including nematodes, across huge distances,\u201d Werner said. \u201cKind of hard to believe, but it seems like it has to be one of those two.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Possible Warning System for a Changing Lake<\/p>\n

The worms appear closely tied to microbialites, where they live in algal mats and feed on bacteria. Researchers found them mainly in the upper few centimeters of the mats (roughly the top inch), but not deeper down.<\/p>\n

That narrow habitat could make the species especially important. Microbialites help drive the lake\u2019s biological productivity, so any animal that interacts with their microbial communities could influence the wider ecosystem.<\/p>\n

The team also found a puzzling sex ratio. In wild samples, less than 1% of the worms were male. In lab cultures, males made up about half the population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s another confusing part of the story for us. When we sample out there on the lake and bring them back in the lab, we get less than 1% males. But when we have cultured them in the lab, the males make up about 50% of the sex ratio,\u201d Werner said. \u201cWe\u2019re super happy to be able to culture them in the lab, but there\u2019s something about it that\u2019s clearly different than the lake environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because nematodes often respond quickly to environmental stress, scientists use them as bioindicators of water quality, salinity, sediment chemistry, and ecosystem change. That could make Diplolaimelloides woaabi valuable as the Great Salt Lake faces pressure from drought, water diversion, shrinking lake levels, and rising salinity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you only have a handful of species that can persist in environments like that, and they\u2019re really sensitive to change, those serve as really good sentinel taxa,\u201d Adams said. \u201cThey tell you how healthy is your ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Diplolaimelloides woaabi is both a new species and a new mystery. It may be a relic of ancient seas, a traveler carried across continents by birds, or part of a hidden microbial world scientists are only beginning to understand.<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cDiplolaimelloides woaabi sp. n. (Nematoda: Monhysteridae): A Novel Species of Free-Living Nematode from the Great Salt Lake, Utah\u201d by Julie Jung, Thomas R. Murray, Morgan C. Marcue, Thomas Powers, Solinus Farrer, Abigail Borgmeier, Byron J. Adams, Jonathan A. Wang, Gustavo Fonseca and Michael S. Werner, 1 February 2025, Journal of Nematology.
DOI: 10.2478\/jofnem-2025-0048<\/a><\/p>\n

Funding for this research came from the National Institutes of Health, Society of Systematic Biologists, National Science Foundation and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00edfico e Tecnol\u00f3gico.<\/p>\n

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